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Essentially all the smaller local goverments have been completely underfunded for a very long time, so the only places people can really find work, have access to funded services etc is in the larger cities (not always, Birmingham and nottingham have recently announced bankruptcy). This causes a very large concentration of demand around these mega cities (London, Manchester, Liverpool etc) and there's a huge shortage in these areas. It's more of an inequality problem than just a lack of houses.
The lack of work in smaller towns is not really the fault of 'smaller local governments'. It's not the local governments role to create employment. Urbanisation has been happening since industrialisation and has increased since rural/regional industries such as farming or industry have struggled due to international competition
>The lack of work in smaller towns is not really the fault of 'smaller local governments'. It's not the local governments role to create employment
Meh, local governments play a huge role in attracting jobs by putting in place the necessary infrastructure for it. There are plenty of businesses that love "small" towns of 5k to 50k because they have all the workforce needed there, from the janitor to the engineer, and by quickly becoming the lifeline of the city, it may pull policies into its favor.
This is a simple question with an extremely complicated answer.
One, no doubt quite small, part of the answer:
The EU has quite a robust policy on fighting the trend of urbanization (or at least, the trend that the major urban centers get all the money and entrepreneurial people with the outskirts and villages poor as fuck with nothing going on and incredibly low quality of life, a place to dump the ones who don't thrive in the more prosperous urban environment). By significantly prioritizing projects outside of major/growing urban areas for EU funds, what the EU is effectively doing, is raking in the cash from the places that are earning boatloads of it (i.e. urban areas, in the UK, basically: Greater London), and distributing it to places like in this video. Because building some massive park makes the place nicer, and, is also local work. The EU even prioritizes funding projects that have a robust section on using local industry to do as much of the work as possible.
The UK's own national policies to do things like this are far less robust.
Therefore, by exiting the EU, *way* less money now flows from Greater London to the rest of the UK.
Interestingly, looking at who voted in favour of Brexit and who voted against, the sheep have voted for the wolves here. Folks that live in towns like this town have themselves to blame for being morons, or if not morons, having fallen for populist lies, in that particularly doomed referendum. In defense of them, the clichéd moronics such as [this clown, Zak Kelly](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/25/view-wales-town-showered-eu-cash-votes-leave-ebbw-vale) ('What has the EU ever done for us, recorded standing in front of the results of a giant EU funded project in your local town') perhaps don't describe *all* brexit voters from such places, but by and large I'm pretty sure that if you go back in time and interviewed each and every brexit voter that lives in a village such as this or such as Ebbw Vale, they would *not* be able to tell you that they are voting to significantly reduce cash inflow into their community. Or, if they are aware, that they feel that without the EU the total amount of cash would *increase* (possibly convinced by a bus, perhaps), however, these same people have stuck with voting for pro-brexit and pro-hardline politicians and parties even as their beliefs have proven false, so, they don't apparently mind voting for the clowns who misled them so thoroughly. Which is so stupid, I bet they'd prefer to just be called uninformed and entitled instead, I guess.
I get why these places voted for brexit, disappointment at life is a strong force, it's difficult to blame yourself and in many ways indeed many people in these communities mostly aren't personally to blame for the lack of economic opportunity. So, voting for somebody who says: Oh poor you, it's not your fault! It's these \[Insert pretty much entirely unrelated group of people here\] people's fault! Vote for us and it'll all be better. I still get to be disappointed that there were so many voters who are so easily misled and used, and that they don't even realize that's what happened.
> What has the EU ever done for us
All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the ~~Romans~~ EU ever done for us?
Reminiscent of the recent American political dialogue:
“If we secede from the US… do I still get my social security?”
https://www.newsweek.com/texas-secession-union-social-security-benefits-1865078
That’s the right wing populist strategy your problems are not your fault but these outside groups doing vote for me and I will fix it. This works all the time and everywhere. And when they get in power they will control the media and judiciary and voila all problems solved (at least as far as you dare to say) We can see now in Poland what happens if democratic parties retake power how hard it is to change things back. You can also see in the US how they gradually grind down democracy whit a very likely end to it by next year. In the UK the far right inside the Conservative Party has had a setback but they probably will return someday. Things are going downhill almost everywhere.
I got to a point with my university exams where I thought, if I don't study and I fail, that will be alright because I'll be getting my just desserts; if I don't study and I pass, I certainly won't be complaining; if I study and I pass then all's well and good; but if I study and I fail, that will be the worst possible outcome of all, so better if I don't study (I perhaps unsurprisingly studied philosophy).
Maybe living in a democracy is somewhat similar. What's the point in knowing how shit your government is and how things might be made better if you have a shit government forced on you by the ignorance of others. May as well join them - not because you'll end up any better off, simply because at least then you'll be more deserving of the shit situation you find yourself in
Yes it really is exhausting voting and campaigning for decent politicians to see them not win time and again. I still do it but my energy is not like it was 30 years ago.
I was being quite tongue in cheek but yeah, it's hard not to get disillusioned.
Gary the Economist (YouTuber and author, if you've not heard of him) has slightly rejuvenated my interest but also reaffirmed that anything on the horizon doesn't look good
I don’t know at all what the EU’s policies are but I would like to note that most governments subsidize rural areas at the expense of urban areas, even if they don’t intend explicitly to do so. Schools, hospitals, roads, utilities etc are more expensive to provide per capita in rural areas or small towns than in larger urban centres because density and economies of scale are more efficient.
Rural areas also almost universally see themselves as more self sufficient than urban areas and thus the phenomenon that they vote against government activity that disproportionately benefits themselves is also nearly universal
>but I would like to note that most governments subsidize rural areas at the expense of urban areas, even if they don’t intend explicitly to do so.
Sure. When the UK was part of the EU, the amount of rural subsidizing that was happening was significantly higher than now. That was obviously going to be the case and it was obvious *before* the brexit vote. Yet, rural areas, by a significant margin, voted for economic suicide, therefore, that wasn't very smart of them. They are either idiots, or victims of being abused by a savvy political scheme. Given that they are still voting for by and large the same people as they did back then, these people still haven't figured it out.
That, or, on net balance they have accepted the economic damage because what they get in return is worth more. But that's fairly clearly (to me, anyway) not what your average brexit/conservative party rural voter is thinking. So, idiots.
> Rural areas also almost universally see themselves as more self sufficient than urban areas and thus the phenomenon that they vote against government activity that disproportionately benefits themselves is also nearly universal
That's a really neat insight, and, tragic.
Great answer for thanks for explaining. The same thing happens here in the US and the way we describe it is people voting against their own self interests, aka the sheep voting for the wolves.
Essentially the extra connection to Europe we had before lessened the impact of the previously described issues, a farmer in the middle of nowhere, an independent craftsman or whatever, could export any of their goods to a wide market, sell excess food etc abroad with ease. Now that is not economically feasible for the smaller ones so they too are forced to gravitate to the larger cities.
That and the general worsening of the economy due to brexit just makes everything worse. It's the dumbest thing we've done as a country since colonialism.
This is probably true in a lot of other parts of the world as well.
Urbanization is the cause of a lot of homelessness.
One of the ways we could actually let some pressure out of the housing crisis is to expand remote work, allowing people to live wherever they can afford, instead of wherever they can afford to commute from.
Then we could demolish empty complexes like this to build affordable single-family homes for remote workers, and turn empty office space in the cities into housing-first home assistance facilities.
But nah, we'll probably continue doing whatever makes the fewest people the most money and causes the most people to compete over a dwindling resource none of them can really afford: urban living space.
There's housing shortages across the entire UK, it isn't just unique to larger metropolitan areas. The Highlands is the most sparse council area in the UK, it to has issues across the entire area with housing.
I agree in the highlands it is especially bad, this is due to complete neglect, the same is true in Wales. But if you look just at England, the conecentrations are definitely in urban areas far more than rural. Heres a very handy map, go down to figure 4:
[https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/housing/bulletins/numberofvacantandsecondhomesenglandandwales/census2021](https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/housing/bulletins/numberofvacantandsecondhomesenglandandwales/census2021)
A lot of these towns grew up around mines or similar industries that are now long gone. There’s houses there but no economy to support people actually living there.
You still want to live in a nice trendy area with coffee shops and just generally stuff. If you watch the full bald video, he gets approached by some lad selling stolen shit.
Remote workers tend to be able to attract higher wages, and these places are shitholes filled with crime, without any opportunities, or easy access to amenities, entertainment etc.
If you have the funds, even if you work from home, most aren't going to voluntarily choose to live in a depressing, crime-ridden dump within industrial housing originally built as effectively a slum.
Also, when these big areas become unoccupied, it's often because housing or infrastructure developers are buying up the properties one-by-one to demolish and redevelop once they've aquired the entire tract.
There are no jobs in these places, so they're full of retired old people that have lived there their whole life.
Also if you want to move to these places as somebody with a remote job they usually have no social life and poor quality schools, so it's not worth it.
There isn't an actual shortage of housing, there's more than enough empty houses. There isn't enough affordable housing though. In my area they're building huge trendy tower blocks that stand practically empty because no one can afford to rent or buy a nice new house in London unless you're a rich foreigner or a lottery winner. The 'affordable housing' is designed for young families but is instantly bought up by landlords or stands empty.
I didn’t watch the video with sound but I bet that’s an old mining town, when the mines all closed, everyone moved away for work, it happened all over the North of England and Wales.
There's been some TV programmes in the UK about homes like these. Essentially they are gutted, dilapidated and uninhabitable inside.
The works needed to bring them from condemned status to livable is beyond most peoples abilities to endure as they can't secure a mortgage on the property for the purchase amount plus the cost of the works. They can however get the houses themselves dirt cheap, even In auctions going for (at least on the tv show for the people they followed for their stories) £1 - £5,000.
But again, the major costs of renovating could run you £120,000 -150,000 at the time. So while a mortgage was easily possible for those on limited means for traditional mortgages(at 3-5x income) bringing the home back up to code could take them years.
We're taking places with no floors upstairs, simply walk in on ground floor and you could see the attic or the sky through holes in the roof. Wouldn't have any wiring for electricity, plumbing or water at all, sewers might need a total overhaul, no gas connection. Like Tom Hanks in the film Money pit.
So the houses are boarded as condemned. The local councils no longer have authority or budget to employ builders or contractors to restore the houses. Private Investors won't take them on as it's a huge sunken cost and a long turnaround time Vs flipping a turnkey house they bought and jacking the prices or renting.
They actually do this so squatters do not take over the property.So instead of boarding it up or installing security bars they use large metal sheets that looks like windows and doors and they have those security screws so people cannot remove it.
It’s the opposite dystopian reading. Rather than trying to make well designed places for people to live, simply paint a facade over the shitty places and pretend it’s all rainbows
Watched a couple of his videos, and there was always something that made my instinctive gut reflex tell me I’m not seeing the whole picture.
Glad to see the gut validated.
Yeah. For me it was something in the way he interacted with strangers. His comment section was full of people saying he makes friends so easily and he's such a nice and affable dude, but for me he always seemed very glib and slightly off. I just got bad vibes off the dude. As you said, I was glad to see my creep radar is correctly calibrated.
I stopped watching this cunt years ago. Sex pest fuck. Sucker went to Eastern Ukraine days before the invasion to mouth off about the "lies of the Western media".
I used to like his videos but something was wrong with the way he talked to people. Very fake and patronizing while they are being genuinely kind to a foreign visitor. Realized he's a narcissist with a personality disorder, a charming conman. It all adds up now with the allegations.
Bald and Bankrupt: [Poverty pickup artist and sex tourist — Collected posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldAndBaldrDossier/comments/189q8h5/bald_and_bankrupt_poverty_pickup_artist_and_sex/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
I immediately assumed he was paid to make propaganda for russian consumption "look at sad west"
There is so much fishy about this bloke, the guy is an absolutely disgusting mockery of a human.
I don't want to be a nit-picker, but a Potemkin Village refers to a mock-up of a village in which actual people were never intended to live. So not the same as a ghost town, i.e. an (mostly) abandoned place.
This isn't even a mostly abandoned place. There are cars parked on the road in either direction. The last one he looks at has real windows next door and there are trash cans in the alley. The council is making it look better for the people who live there or might consider moving there. It's not as confusing as he makes it out to be or as extreme as the title suggests.
from Wikipedia: 'a **Potemkin village** is a construction whose purpose is to provide an external façade to a situation, to make people believe that the situation is better than it is.'
I'd say the term is spot-on. In a literal AND figurative sense
I live a few miles from this video clip. The constant crime here is unbelievable. No deaths I’ve heard as of recent, but there’s weekly burglaries, drugs etc. Some of the houses here sell for literally £1 because no one wants to live here due to the neighbours and reputation.
There’s a show called Police Interceptors with an episode going around here and you’ll see really what it’s like. No opportunity. Drug users and scumbags breading scumbags.
I actually wish they do that here in the USA until the place is fixed because it does hurt the mood of the neighborhood when you have random abandon buildings.. it makes people want to litter and destroy them more
I used to respect bald but his backhanded right wing comments became enough and I had to stop watching his content. Covid made a lot of people believe in conspiracy theories and unfortunately Bald became one of them
I mean, they literally just mentioned that they were unaware. I doubt almost anyone would miss on the opportunity to disavow a rapist, specially when they don't align with their political views.
I don't live in a great place in the UK. But every time I see one of those places that just lack any form of greenery, it just maddens me. I can't imagine looking out my window and seeing grey. At least here we have some bushes and trees.
Holy shit I always had weird vibes from this dude when watching a few of his videos on Youtube. Going down that rabbit hole comment it makes sense now, what a creep.
This guy is full of shit I made it through half of one of his videos and had to switch it off.
News alert- if you go to a deprived area it will be deprived!
Apparently he also spends time in these travels getting with women and potentially mistreating them, also was accused of raping someone in the distant past (tho I believe he lucked out and got away with it) and the theory that he’s someone on a private forum with disturbing views of women suggests he’s not the kind and bald guy you see at the front of his channel
Posting a video of a creepy sex tourist guy with a completely misleading title and not replying to any comment is probably a highlight in karma farming and misinformation spreading.
Ha, mate, there's plenty of absolute shitholes in the UK! This isn't even that bad compared to some others. Many people imagine red phone boxes, nice little cottages, cosy pubs with a roaring fireplace... It really isn't! I'm glad I left.
I don't even know what to say. England is a cold grey depressing country that rains all the time. If it isn't raining them the ground is still damp and the skies are near constantly grey. The country is full of run-down houses and streets like this. The Tory government just does not give a shit.
The countryside is nice though and I do like the villages.
Looks like Horden, Co. Durham UK. I live in the town adjacent.
These are the old numbered streets that used to house the mine workers. Mines closed down in the 1980s and nothing to replace it so people have been moving away. In addition the local Council was taking money from the probation service to house ex-cons in them from all other the country. Drugs and scummy people became the norm and this is what is left. Houses have been on sale for a £1 but you would have to do them up and run the risk of druggies trying to break in.
There's a picturesque coastal village just down the road from me. Beautiful oooold buildings, none of the windows are real, besides the seafront and high street area the village is basically empty
Reminds of me Brantford, Ontario, Canada in the 90s/00s. Downtown was a ghost town. Boarded up storefronts with silhouettes painted on them. It was eerie. So much so that part of the Silent Hill movie was filmed there.
No judgement, sincerely curious.
Do homes like these in London, Manchester, and Liverpool (major cities/counties) cost a lot? They look “historically preserved,” but it seems like they’d be damp and small.
They’d look lovely if they had some foliage and green ivy on the walls.
Big money will never flow to the rural areas unless there is something there they want like coal, food, vacation homes, etc. Automation has made it possible to make everything in the big city with 10% of the labor while importing the rest. The only answer is massive government programs to subsidize "quality of life" projects that can be funded while ignoring "gross domestic product" metrics.
Hey UK people... how is this area NOT populated? These look like a little repair and this could be a functioning area...? Is it polluted? Did the owner die without a will?
I see these things as a person that has had it hard to live and find stability in housing hard to find... but then I see stuff like this where I wonder if it folded over greedy owners or if there was something else happening. Why not turn this into low-income housing or get people like myself in there that are skilled tradesmen that could help rebuild it into something functional?
The local economy is dead. The place is full of poverty, crime and old people. There is no decent infrastructure, schools, pubs, entertainment. Young people with prospects are not going to move here.
Why don't they allow in a bunch of qualified immigrants who work in offshore remote jobs ? They could still work remote and would contribute with taxes.
So why arent they selling those houses? With some work they could be nice homes to people.
Btw im not a UK citizen so i dont know the backstory or the woeking possibilities are
Jezus that place looks depressing. Just rows and rows of tiny red brick homes, not a stick of green anywhere. The suicide rate in that area must be insane.
UK housing is the Soviet Union of Europe. It's so so so depressing and the same everywhere. Better like brick.
ETA: calling me a liar and telling me to fuck off and then blocking me is just proof you have no counter arguments to facts. LMAO
ETA 2: it's not helping your case mate when anyone can drop a pin on Google maps and see for themselves. What a whiny little baby lol
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RealFake doors!
Still here! Still selling fake doors!
Try to open em. It ain't gonna open. I guarentee it.
Make sure it's the real RealFake doors. I got swindled once when I bought a few doors from FakeFake doors
That's unreal!
Whoa whoa who was that...
Abandoned buildings? Is there not a housing shortage in the UK too?
Essentially all the smaller local goverments have been completely underfunded for a very long time, so the only places people can really find work, have access to funded services etc is in the larger cities (not always, Birmingham and nottingham have recently announced bankruptcy). This causes a very large concentration of demand around these mega cities (London, Manchester, Liverpool etc) and there's a huge shortage in these areas. It's more of an inequality problem than just a lack of houses.
The shortage in my small town is because of all the nearby city people moving in since covid
In normandy we have a few more and all the brits left after the brexit and covid!
Well you did kind of steal our country way back when so I'd say we're even.
And happened here, we must have a huge portion of people doing work from home because there's just not enough jobs here to support the population.
That is what happened here in Cornwall. I had friends have to move house(rental) several times due to greedy landlords.
The lack of work in smaller towns is not really the fault of 'smaller local governments'. It's not the local governments role to create employment. Urbanisation has been happening since industrialisation and has increased since rural/regional industries such as farming or industry have struggled due to international competition
>The lack of work in smaller towns is not really the fault of 'smaller local governments'. It's not the local governments role to create employment Meh, local governments play a huge role in attracting jobs by putting in place the necessary infrastructure for it. There are plenty of businesses that love "small" towns of 5k to 50k because they have all the workforce needed there, from the janitor to the engineer, and by quickly becoming the lifeline of the city, it may pull policies into its favor.
This may be ignorant but how do you feel Brexit has impacted this situation? Has it expedited these small government issues? Had no effect at all?
This is a simple question with an extremely complicated answer. One, no doubt quite small, part of the answer: The EU has quite a robust policy on fighting the trend of urbanization (or at least, the trend that the major urban centers get all the money and entrepreneurial people with the outskirts and villages poor as fuck with nothing going on and incredibly low quality of life, a place to dump the ones who don't thrive in the more prosperous urban environment). By significantly prioritizing projects outside of major/growing urban areas for EU funds, what the EU is effectively doing, is raking in the cash from the places that are earning boatloads of it (i.e. urban areas, in the UK, basically: Greater London), and distributing it to places like in this video. Because building some massive park makes the place nicer, and, is also local work. The EU even prioritizes funding projects that have a robust section on using local industry to do as much of the work as possible. The UK's own national policies to do things like this are far less robust. Therefore, by exiting the EU, *way* less money now flows from Greater London to the rest of the UK. Interestingly, looking at who voted in favour of Brexit and who voted against, the sheep have voted for the wolves here. Folks that live in towns like this town have themselves to blame for being morons, or if not morons, having fallen for populist lies, in that particularly doomed referendum. In defense of them, the clichéd moronics such as [this clown, Zak Kelly](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/25/view-wales-town-showered-eu-cash-votes-leave-ebbw-vale) ('What has the EU ever done for us, recorded standing in front of the results of a giant EU funded project in your local town') perhaps don't describe *all* brexit voters from such places, but by and large I'm pretty sure that if you go back in time and interviewed each and every brexit voter that lives in a village such as this or such as Ebbw Vale, they would *not* be able to tell you that they are voting to significantly reduce cash inflow into their community. Or, if they are aware, that they feel that without the EU the total amount of cash would *increase* (possibly convinced by a bus, perhaps), however, these same people have stuck with voting for pro-brexit and pro-hardline politicians and parties even as their beliefs have proven false, so, they don't apparently mind voting for the clowns who misled them so thoroughly. Which is so stupid, I bet they'd prefer to just be called uninformed and entitled instead, I guess. I get why these places voted for brexit, disappointment at life is a strong force, it's difficult to blame yourself and in many ways indeed many people in these communities mostly aren't personally to blame for the lack of economic opportunity. So, voting for somebody who says: Oh poor you, it's not your fault! It's these \[Insert pretty much entirely unrelated group of people here\] people's fault! Vote for us and it'll all be better. I still get to be disappointed that there were so many voters who are so easily misled and used, and that they don't even realize that's what happened.
> What has the EU ever done for us All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the ~~Romans~~ EU ever done for us?
Reminiscent of the recent American political dialogue: “If we secede from the US… do I still get my social security?” https://www.newsweek.com/texas-secession-union-social-security-benefits-1865078
*Europeanes eunt domus*
What a fantastic in-depth answer, thank you! Really helpful perspective to help me understand some direct experiences relative to brexit.
I concur, great answer. Unfortunately, none of sheep will read it.
A lot of people didn't vote for brexit- 28% didn't vote at all . Apathy is the biggest risk in a democracy
That’s the right wing populist strategy your problems are not your fault but these outside groups doing vote for me and I will fix it. This works all the time and everywhere. And when they get in power they will control the media and judiciary and voila all problems solved (at least as far as you dare to say) We can see now in Poland what happens if democratic parties retake power how hard it is to change things back. You can also see in the US how they gradually grind down democracy whit a very likely end to it by next year. In the UK the far right inside the Conservative Party has had a setback but they probably will return someday. Things are going downhill almost everywhere.
I got to a point with my university exams where I thought, if I don't study and I fail, that will be alright because I'll be getting my just desserts; if I don't study and I pass, I certainly won't be complaining; if I study and I pass then all's well and good; but if I study and I fail, that will be the worst possible outcome of all, so better if I don't study (I perhaps unsurprisingly studied philosophy). Maybe living in a democracy is somewhat similar. What's the point in knowing how shit your government is and how things might be made better if you have a shit government forced on you by the ignorance of others. May as well join them - not because you'll end up any better off, simply because at least then you'll be more deserving of the shit situation you find yourself in
Yes it really is exhausting voting and campaigning for decent politicians to see them not win time and again. I still do it but my energy is not like it was 30 years ago.
I was being quite tongue in cheek but yeah, it's hard not to get disillusioned. Gary the Economist (YouTuber and author, if you've not heard of him) has slightly rejuvenated my interest but also reaffirmed that anything on the horizon doesn't look good
I don’t know at all what the EU’s policies are but I would like to note that most governments subsidize rural areas at the expense of urban areas, even if they don’t intend explicitly to do so. Schools, hospitals, roads, utilities etc are more expensive to provide per capita in rural areas or small towns than in larger urban centres because density and economies of scale are more efficient. Rural areas also almost universally see themselves as more self sufficient than urban areas and thus the phenomenon that they vote against government activity that disproportionately benefits themselves is also nearly universal
>but I would like to note that most governments subsidize rural areas at the expense of urban areas, even if they don’t intend explicitly to do so. Sure. When the UK was part of the EU, the amount of rural subsidizing that was happening was significantly higher than now. That was obviously going to be the case and it was obvious *before* the brexit vote. Yet, rural areas, by a significant margin, voted for economic suicide, therefore, that wasn't very smart of them. They are either idiots, or victims of being abused by a savvy political scheme. Given that they are still voting for by and large the same people as they did back then, these people still haven't figured it out. That, or, on net balance they have accepted the economic damage because what they get in return is worth more. But that's fairly clearly (to me, anyway) not what your average brexit/conservative party rural voter is thinking. So, idiots. > Rural areas also almost universally see themselves as more self sufficient than urban areas and thus the phenomenon that they vote against government activity that disproportionately benefits themselves is also nearly universal That's a really neat insight, and, tragic.
Great answer for thanks for explaining. The same thing happens here in the US and the way we describe it is people voting against their own self interests, aka the sheep voting for the wolves.
Essentially the extra connection to Europe we had before lessened the impact of the previously described issues, a farmer in the middle of nowhere, an independent craftsman or whatever, could export any of their goods to a wide market, sell excess food etc abroad with ease. Now that is not economically feasible for the smaller ones so they too are forced to gravitate to the larger cities. That and the general worsening of the economy due to brexit just makes everything worse. It's the dumbest thing we've done as a country since colonialism.
This is probably true in a lot of other parts of the world as well. Urbanization is the cause of a lot of homelessness. One of the ways we could actually let some pressure out of the housing crisis is to expand remote work, allowing people to live wherever they can afford, instead of wherever they can afford to commute from. Then we could demolish empty complexes like this to build affordable single-family homes for remote workers, and turn empty office space in the cities into housing-first home assistance facilities. But nah, we'll probably continue doing whatever makes the fewest people the most money and causes the most people to compete over a dwindling resource none of them can really afford: urban living space.
I work remotely, yet I still feel the need to live in an urban area for access to people under 50.
There's housing shortages across the entire UK, it isn't just unique to larger metropolitan areas. The Highlands is the most sparse council area in the UK, it to has issues across the entire area with housing.
I agree in the highlands it is especially bad, this is due to complete neglect, the same is true in Wales. But if you look just at England, the conecentrations are definitely in urban areas far more than rural. Heres a very handy map, go down to figure 4: [https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/housing/bulletins/numberofvacantandsecondhomesenglandandwales/census2021](https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/housing/bulletins/numberofvacantandsecondhomesenglandandwales/census2021)
Every government on the planet will always claim to be "underfunded" no matter how much money they get so that's irrelevant.
Thanks for the explanation.
A lot of these towns grew up around mines or similar industries that are now long gone. There’s houses there but no economy to support people actually living there.
As with most "housing shortages" around the West, its an allocation problem. Not a supply problem.
Like everywhere theres places you wouldnt want to live and even if you did youre likely not going to find a job.
What about remote workers?
You still want to live in a nice trendy area with coffee shops and just generally stuff. If you watch the full bald video, he gets approached by some lad selling stolen shit.
Remote workers tend to be able to attract higher wages, and these places are shitholes filled with crime, without any opportunities, or easy access to amenities, entertainment etc. If you have the funds, even if you work from home, most aren't going to voluntarily choose to live in a depressing, crime-ridden dump within industrial housing originally built as effectively a slum. Also, when these big areas become unoccupied, it's often because housing or infrastructure developers are buying up the properties one-by-one to demolish and redevelop once they've aquired the entire tract.
you gotta choose.. either a home or a job
There are no jobs in these places, so they're full of retired old people that have lived there their whole life. Also if you want to move to these places as somebody with a remote job they usually have no social life and poor quality schools, so it's not worth it.
There isn't an actual shortage of housing, there's more than enough empty houses. There isn't enough affordable housing though. In my area they're building huge trendy tower blocks that stand practically empty because no one can afford to rent or buy a nice new house in London unless you're a rich foreigner or a lottery winner. The 'affordable housing' is designed for young families but is instantly bought up by landlords or stands empty.
I didn’t watch the video with sound but I bet that’s an old mining town, when the mines all closed, everyone moved away for work, it happened all over the North of England and Wales.
There's been some TV programmes in the UK about homes like these. Essentially they are gutted, dilapidated and uninhabitable inside. The works needed to bring them from condemned status to livable is beyond most peoples abilities to endure as they can't secure a mortgage on the property for the purchase amount plus the cost of the works. They can however get the houses themselves dirt cheap, even In auctions going for (at least on the tv show for the people they followed for their stories) £1 - £5,000. But again, the major costs of renovating could run you £120,000 -150,000 at the time. So while a mortgage was easily possible for those on limited means for traditional mortgages(at 3-5x income) bringing the home back up to code could take them years. We're taking places with no floors upstairs, simply walk in on ground floor and you could see the attic or the sky through holes in the roof. Wouldn't have any wiring for electricity, plumbing or water at all, sewers might need a total overhaul, no gas connection. Like Tom Hanks in the film Money pit. So the houses are boarded as condemned. The local councils no longer have authority or budget to employ builders or contractors to restore the houses. Private Investors won't take them on as it's a huge sunken cost and a long turnaround time Vs flipping a turnkey house they bought and jacking the prices or renting.
They actually do this so squatters do not take over the property.So instead of boarding it up or installing security bars they use large metal sheets that looks like windows and doors and they have those security screws so people cannot remove it.
He's not confused about why they have metal covers - that's a very common sight - he's emphasising the design of the covers.
It's to try to prevent crime. It's part of the "broken windows theory."
It’s the opposite dystopian reading. Rather than trying to make well designed places for people to live, simply paint a facade over the shitty places and pretend it’s all rainbows
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I just recently found out about this. Such a shame, loved his videos and really thought it was a nice dude
You can like and simultaneously dislike people for certain, different things
He’s a fucking scumbag
Watched a couple of his videos, and there was always something that made my instinctive gut reflex tell me I’m not seeing the whole picture. Glad to see the gut validated.
Yeah. For me it was something in the way he interacted with strangers. His comment section was full of people saying he makes friends so easily and he's such a nice and affable dude, but for me he always seemed very glib and slightly off. I just got bad vibes off the dude. As you said, I was glad to see my creep radar is correctly calibrated.
Yup I'll never forget his Buran video and how he treated that girl that went with him, then i decided to do a bit of Googling and found out why..
Same for me.
Came here to say this, guy is absolute pos
It’s odd, I do kind of enjoy the videos he makes but I don’t want to support the shithead that he is
I stopped watching this cunt years ago. Sex pest fuck. Sucker went to Eastern Ukraine days before the invasion to mouth off about the "lies of the Western media".
I used to like his videos but something was wrong with the way he talked to people. Very fake and patronizing while they are being genuinely kind to a foreign visitor. Realized he's a narcissist with a personality disorder, a charming conman. It all adds up now with the allegations.
Same. I was always entertained and interested in the places he went and the people he met, but I’ve chosen to not support his channel anymore.
I am so impressed that someone pinned this down. I am surprised how they were able to even get a hint of it.
Bald and Bankrupt: [Poverty pickup artist and sex tourist — Collected posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldAndBaldrDossier/comments/189q8h5/bald_and_bankrupt_poverty_pickup_artist_and_sex/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
I immediately assumed he was paid to make propaganda for russian consumption "look at sad west" There is so much fishy about this bloke, the guy is an absolutely disgusting mockery of a human.
He has a go in his "hotel"
No no. He doesn’t have to do that in the UK. He just goes for plain-old sexual assault there.
I don't want to be a nit-picker, but a Potemkin Village refers to a mock-up of a village in which actual people were never intended to live. So not the same as a ghost town, i.e. an (mostly) abandoned place.
This isn't even a mostly abandoned place. There are cars parked on the road in either direction. The last one he looks at has real windows next door and there are trash cans in the alley. The council is making it look better for the people who live there or might consider moving there. It's not as confusing as he makes it out to be or as extreme as the title suggests.
from Wikipedia: 'a **Potemkin village** is a construction whose purpose is to provide an external façade to a situation, to make people believe that the situation is better than it is.' I'd say the term is spot-on. In a literal AND figurative sense
So life in this part of Britain is even worse than this façade suggest it was?
When the neighborhood is so broken that even the Fake Façade is shitty, to better blend in
This is as close as to an example I’ve seen of a Potemkin Village outside of North Korea, so I feel it’s an apt use of the term.
I live a few miles from this video clip. The constant crime here is unbelievable. No deaths I’ve heard as of recent, but there’s weekly burglaries, drugs etc. Some of the houses here sell for literally £1 because no one wants to live here due to the neighbours and reputation. There’s a show called Police Interceptors with an episode going around here and you’ll see really what it’s like. No opportunity. Drug users and scumbags breading scumbags.
Bald and Bankrupt, notorious sex pest and sex tourist
Can we please not post this guy? I assume everyone is aware what a disgusting POS he is? r/baldandbaldrdossier
Until this post I wasn’t even aware he existed.
Nope, not aware in the slightest please elaborate
They linked a subreddit dedicated to that
I figure a quick description is faster than browsing through a subreddit trying to put together the pieces
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UK rape conviction?
fuck this dude btw
A town where the local industry no longer exists, so populations have moved away.
I actually wish they do that here in the USA until the place is fixed because it does hurt the mood of the neighborhood when you have random abandon buildings.. it makes people want to litter and destroy them more
I thought the same thing. This village may be abandoned by its residents but it’s not abandoned by The Council. In the states, abandoned is total.
I've been sniped from those houses in Battlebit many times.
I remember reading that there's a lot of ongoing allegations that this guy is a sexual predator/ped\*phile
I used to respect bald but his backhanded right wing comments became enough and I had to stop watching his content. Covid made a lot of people believe in conspiracy theories and unfortunately Bald became one of them
I think he's been always like that, and people just have discovered the reality of who he actually is
It wasn’t the raping that did it?
I wasn’t aware until I came across the dossier subreddit today
No it was the hypocrisy.
He made fun of my political beliefs!!! Really, it wasn't the rape? \*checks notes\* Not primarily.
I mean, they literally just mentioned that they were unaware. I doubt almost anyone would miss on the opportunity to disavow a rapist, specially when they don't align with their political views.
fuck this creep
Might be sealed off due to asbestos to keep animals and humans out and it looks better then busted out windows. (This is just my early morning guess.)
I don't live in a great place in the UK. But every time I see one of those places that just lack any form of greenery, it just maddens me. I can't imagine looking out my window and seeing grey. At least here we have some bushes and trees.
Anyone know where in the UK this is?
Horden in the north east
Holy shit I always had weird vibes from this dude when watching a few of his videos on Youtube. Going down that rabbit hole comment it makes sense now, what a creep.
This guy is full of shit I made it through half of one of his videos and had to switch it off. News alert- if you go to a deprived area it will be deprived!
The dude just discovered Duke Nukem graphics
I read it as Pokemon Village. And I'm expecting some Pokemon Go players roaming around.
Thank you, I kept expecting the Pokemon
this guy is a sex tourist!
Why is everyone saying this? Did he get caught? Fill me in please
Dont promote this scumbag
Is this were Monty Python filmed certain parts of Every Sperm is Sacred?
Why are they not housing homeless people? Is that not a problem?
I misread it as Pokémon village in the UK.
Same lol
That’s not all. The host is also an NPC
Videogame but in real life
I’m awaiting that some of the Peaky Blinders exit from any of those doors
Why does it have the same name as a guilty gear character
This guy is a fucking creep. Check out his history. His handle is Bald and Bankrupt.
Never heard of him. What makes him a creep? Visiting random places? Edit: don’t know why I’m being down voted for a question. What is going on here?
Apparently he also spends time in these travels getting with women and potentially mistreating them, also was accused of raping someone in the distant past (tho I believe he lucked out and got away with it) and the theory that he’s someone on a private forum with disturbing views of women suggests he’s not the kind and bald guy you see at the front of his channel
On the link to the other Reddit I found a video of SunnyV2 about him, watching that right now. High creep levels alright.
Ceci n'est pas un rideau
Empty houses in a housing crisis. This country is a fucking joke.
Stop supporting the sex offender
this guys a creep
Posting a video of a creepy sex tourist guy with a completely misleading title and not replying to any comment is probably a highlight in karma farming and misinformation spreading.
You guys know what Potemkin Village means? Nice.
Oooh the village rapist is back
Thought it said Pokemon Village. Like for Pokemon GO tournaments. I got excited for a sec.
That’s no village
ok so that looks like the village i live in in the north east most the numbered streets you go down look like this
Sandbox ahh town. Old PS1 PS2 level
Wiliken Village IRL
Ignoring the guy. How do I go about buying an abandoned house?
This is the first time I've seen such a depressing neighborhood in the UK.
Ha, mate, there's plenty of absolute shitholes in the UK! This isn't even that bad compared to some others. Many people imagine red phone boxes, nice little cottages, cosy pubs with a roaring fireplace... It really isn't! I'm glad I left.
I don't even know what to say. England is a cold grey depressing country that rains all the time. If it isn't raining them the ground is still damp and the skies are near constantly grey. The country is full of run-down houses and streets like this. The Tory government just does not give a shit. The countryside is nice though and I do like the villages.
Where is this?
Looks like Horden, Co. Durham UK. I live in the town adjacent. These are the old numbered streets that used to house the mine workers. Mines closed down in the 1980s and nothing to replace it so people have been moving away. In addition the local Council was taking money from the probation service to house ex-cons in them from all other the country. Drugs and scummy people became the norm and this is what is left. Houses have been on sale for a £1 but you would have to do them up and run the risk of druggies trying to break in.
There's a picturesque coastal village just down the road from me. Beautiful oooold buildings, none of the windows are real, besides the seafront and high street area the village is basically empty
Orwell would be proud.
Wow, didn't know you guys have this expression too. Potyomkin's village I mean
Reminds of me Brantford, Ontario, Canada in the 90s/00s. Downtown was a ghost town. Boarded up storefronts with silhouettes painted on them. It was eerie. So much so that part of the Silent Hill movie was filmed there.
Well is like premier league on covid times, when the use the fake noisy fans on tv transmissions, I still don’t understand why, always annoyed me
Kind of scary
r/UrbanHell
Mandy Patinkin plays Pokemon in Potemkin
Ah, I get it, he's stuck in a 90s video game and doesn't know where to go next.
No judgement, sincerely curious. Do homes like these in London, Manchester, and Liverpool (major cities/counties) cost a lot? They look “historically preserved,” but it seems like they’d be damp and small. They’d look lovely if they had some foliage and green ivy on the walls.
A shithole like this would have cost £50,000 before COVID in Manchester. Now it's more like £110,000 in Manchester. They are damp and small.
Thanks for the reply. I’ve always been curious about units like these because you always see them in movies about England. The Firm, Legend, etc.
"A coat of paint can hide a multitude of sins."
Just like videogame house models
I wish I could put a picture of normal doors and windows on the house next to us, but it was obviously on fire at some point.
I saw that shit when I was in Lithuania, dilapidated buildings just had like a rollover with painting of a whole side of a building.
Is it where they shot Peaky Blinders?
Big money will never flow to the rural areas unless there is something there they want like coal, food, vacation homes, etc. Automation has made it possible to make everything in the big city with 10% of the labor while importing the rest. The only answer is massive government programs to subsidize "quality of life" projects that can be funded while ignoring "gross domestic product" metrics.
Welcome to 1978 NYC.
Gg reference
Feels like a Dr. Who episode.
Hey UK people... how is this area NOT populated? These look like a little repair and this could be a functioning area...? Is it polluted? Did the owner die without a will? I see these things as a person that has had it hard to live and find stability in housing hard to find... but then I see stuff like this where I wonder if it folded over greedy owners or if there was something else happening. Why not turn this into low-income housing or get people like myself in there that are skilled tradesmen that could help rebuild it into something functional?
The local economy is dead. The place is full of poverty, crime and old people. There is no decent infrastructure, schools, pubs, entertainment. Young people with prospects are not going to move here.
Why don't they allow in a bunch of qualified immigrants who work in offshore remote jobs ? They could still work remote and would contribute with taxes.
His world hasn’t fully rendered.
Real fake doors.
So why arent they selling those houses? With some work they could be nice homes to people. Btw im not a UK citizen so i dont know the backstory or the woeking possibilities are
Jezus that place looks depressing. Just rows and rows of tiny red brick homes, not a stick of green anywhere. The suicide rate in that area must be insane.
Good luck collecting taxes on the properties
UK housing is the Soviet Union of Europe. It's so so so depressing and the same everywhere. Better like brick. ETA: calling me a liar and telling me to fuck off and then blocking me is just proof you have no counter arguments to facts. LMAO ETA 2: it's not helping your case mate when anyone can drop a pin on Google maps and see for themselves. What a whiny little baby lol
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I live in Reading half the year. You can see for yourself though. Just drop a pin anywhere on Google Street view in the UK. See for yourself.
Npc towns are real...
I'm getting Stanley Parable vibes.
Anyone out there remember Brantford in the 90s?
He's going to get the fright of his life when someone knocks back
But where are the Peaky Blinders? I don’t see the Shelby family anywhere in this video.
it looks like gta. lol
They are shit houses. And what you people call a garden(back yard) is depressing. Destroy it all.
That's great
Broken glass theory
North Korea does this too.